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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Cay & The Scaffolds Complete Recordings (1963-1964)

Cay Karlsson

Born December 24th, 1945 in Helsinki, Finland. A Finnish singer and musician who has never had a solo career but has been a member of many known bands: Cay & The Scaffolds, Roosters .

The Scaffolds started their life as a "rautalanka", instrumental guitar band in the autumn of 1961. The group comprised of Harry Bergholm (lead guitar), Christer Bergholm (bass), Ulf Dolk (rhythm guitar) and Jan Nordberg (drums). The two last-named were soon replaced by Arto Lönnfors and Mårten Wikström.Their first gig was in the winter of 1962 at a friend's wedding. A year later they signed a contract with Musiikkitalo Westerlund, who released two instrumental singles: "Dark Eyes Beat" and "Katariinan kamarissa".

In the spring of 1963 Harry and Mårten visited London and brought The Beatles' debut LP with them, resulting in several of its songs being added to The Scaffolds' setlist. They were assumedly the first Finnish band who performed Beatles songs.

When Harry and Mårten left to serve in the army, new men Mårten Enqvist and Hannu Euramaa replaced them, and the lineup was augmented with vocalist Cay Karlsson. The boys started writing material themselves, and the next six singles and one EP they did during the next 11 months consisted almost entirely of songs by either Christer, Arto or Cay. The band was at the height of their popularity, and they could almost be called the Finnish Beatles, since they were the only band that had properly screaming girls in their audience.